Assange, Biden opens the first glimmer of hope: “We are considering stopping the legal action”
“We are evaluating it.” As Joe Biden responded, during the ceremony welcoming Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, to a journalist’s shouted question regarding Australia’s request to the United States to end criminal prosecution of Julian Assange, according to what the White House pool reports. When the issue was raised last summer during a meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of the two countries, the United States they had not accepted it, claiming, it was reported at the time, that the founder of Wikileaks, by disseminating secret documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, had risked causing very serious damage to US national security.
Last February, the Australian Parliament approved a motion asking the United States and the United Kingdom – where Assange has been detained since 2019, after having remained a refugee for 7 years in the Embassy of Ecuador who had granted him asylum – to release the founder of Wikileaks, who is an Australian citizen, from prison, allowing him to return to his homeland. The motion was supported by Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who since taking office in 2022 has called for the Assange affair to reach a “conclusion”, and raised the issue directly with Biden during his visit to Washington last October.
Biden’s words come after, on March 26, The High Court in London has granted Assange the possibility of a further appeal against extradition to the United States, setting the new hearing for May 20th. Furthermore, Washington was asked to present new guarantees within three weeks that, in the event of extradition, the rights of the journalist accused of espionage will be respected and that, in particular, he will not risk the death penalty.